Every School a Good School:

A Policy for school Improvement

Governors ProgrammeApril 2012

Every School a Good School

Launched April 2009

Where has the need for ESaGS come from?

The challenges we face

• High performance at the top end – but huge tail of underachievement, particularly affecting those from disadvantaged backgrounds

• Position slipping in international context• Significant variations between schools that

appear to share similar characteristics• Increasing evidence of differential

outcomes between boys and girls and some evidence of worrying differentials between young people in controlled v maintained schools.

The challenges...continued• A fifth of children moving from primary to

post-primary without achieving the expected levels of literacy and numeracy

• Just over a quarter of young people in non-selective post-primaries achieving 5 good GCSEs inc English and Maths

• Quality of provision not good enough in a third of primary schools

• Room for improvement in a third of lessons in post-primary schools

• Leadership and management unsatisfactory in 10% of post-primary schools

The Context for Belfast

• Huge variations in performance across similar schools

• Pockets of high social disadvantage• Population continuing to shrink• The grammar factor in post-primary• 40% of non-selective post-primary

schools in city have fewer than 500 pupils• BELB schools have higher than average

performance against core GCSE measure but BELB residents have lower than average performance

Performance in Mathematical Literacy (top 30 OECD countries)

• Chinese Taipei 549• Finland 548• Hong Kong-China 547• Korea 547• Netherlands 531• Switzerland 530• Canada 527• Macao-China 525• Liechtenstein 525• Japan 523• New Zealand 522• Belgium 520• Australia 520• Estonia 515• Denmark 513• Czech-Republic 510

• Iceland 506• Scotland 506• Austria 505• Slovenia 504 Germany 504 Sweden 502 Republic of Ireland

501 OECD AVERAGE 498 France 496 Poland 495 England 495 Northern Ireland

494 Slovak Republic 492 Hungary 491 Luxembourg

490

Performance in Reading (top 30 OECD countries)

• Korea 556• Finland 547• Hong Kong-China 536• Canada 527• New Zealand 521• Republic of Ireland 517• Australia 513• Liechtenstein 510• Poland 508• Sweden 507• Netherlands 507• Belgium 501• Estonia 501• Scotland 499• Switzerland 499

Japan 498England 496Chinese Taipei496Northern Ireland 495Germany 495Denmark 494Slovenia 494Macao-China 492OECD AVERAGE 492Austria 490France 488Iceland 484Norway 484Czech-Republic483Hungary 482Wales 481

Characteristics of a successful School

(ESAGS)

1. Child- centred provision

2. High quality Teaching and Learning

3. Effective leadership

4. A school connected to its local community

Child-centred provision

• A school culture of achievement, improvement and ambition exists – with clear expectations that all pupils can and will achieve to the very best of their ability

• There is a commitment to involve young people in discussions and decisions on school life that directly affect them and to their views

High quality teaching and learning

• A broad and relevant curriculum is provided for the pupils

• An emphasis on literacy and numeracy exists across the curriculum

• Assessment and other data is used to effectively inform teaching and learning

• Rigorous self-evaluation is carried out by teachers and the whole school

• Teacher reflect on their own work and the outcomes of individual pupils

• Education outcomes compare well when benchmarked with other schools

Effective leadership

• An effective SDP in place, providing clear and realistic targets for improvement

• School leaders demonstrate a commitment to providing professional development opportunities for staff

• Teachers are given the opportunity to share in leadership of the school

• School leaders monitor and evaluate effectively school outcomes, policies, practice and procedures and the SDP itself

Community Links• Good relationships between the school,

parents and the wider community that it serves

• The school and its teachers are held in respect by parents and the local community

• The school uses its involvement in particular programmes (eg Extended Schools) effectively in meeting the needs of the community and nearby schools

• The school works closely with other relevant statutory and voluntary agencies whose work impacts on education

Quality of teaching and learning

In the most effective lessons, the main enabling factors are:

• Teaching which is challenging, interesting and engaging and focuses on making the learning real and relevant for the pupils

• Effective linkages across the curriculum which build on the learners’ experiences,

• The effective and skilful use of questioning and discussion between teacher and learners

What underpins ESAGS?

1. Improvement driven from within the school - leadership

2. Centrality of high quality teaching and need to support this (McKinsey report)

3. Focus on schools as part of their communities

4. Intervene where provision is unsatisfactory (provide support)

5. More direct interventions if there is no evidence of improvement (hope this will be rare)

The future under ESAGS

is

now

What does ESaGS mean for the school

Big MessagesBig Messages

• HIGHLY important!

• It’s all about feedback informing action

• Child-centred

• Active data

• Keep it simple

• Ask the right questions, in the right way

• Select the best information

• Without action it’s expensive hot air

• New NI policy (April 2009)

• According to the evidence, how are we doing…and what’s next?

• Securing better outcomes

• Easy to collect lots of inert data

• Minimum data with maximum impact

• It boils down to using critical questions to investigate practice (and outcomes),

• …selecting the information which will best help you answer these questions,

• …and planning/implementing actions

about School Self about School Self EvaluationEvaluation

School Self-Evaluation leading to School Self-Evaluation leading to ImprovementImprovement

How are we

doing?

How do we

know?

What’s next?

Focus on essentials first, and most often…

Classroom practice

Leadership & Management

Asking the right questions - not dodging the critical ones

Selecting and capturing the information needed to answer them!

Prioritised, stepped changes in a shared plan

Clear focus on learningCheckable outcomes

Implementation timeline

The Process….. and the Critical Issues:

School Self-Evaluation School Self-Evaluation leading to Improvementleading to Improvement

Action!

•Bringing plans to life

•Keeping priorities uppermost

•Monitoring, problem solving, adapting

•Summative review against predicted outcomes

The Process….. and the Critical Issues:

‘‘School self-evaluation and self-School self-evaluation and self-improvement… are at the heart of improvement… are at the heart of the policy. We believe that schools the policy. We believe that schools themselves, through honest and themselves, through honest and open engagement in self-evaluation, open engagement in self-evaluation, using effectively the wide range of using effectively the wide range of data and information available to data and information available to them, are best placed to identify them, are best placed to identify areas for improvement and to areas for improvement and to implement changes that can bring implement changes that can bring about better outcomes for pupils.’ about better outcomes for pupils.’ (ESaGS 2009(ESaGS 2009))

Expectations of schools

•Governors understand their role as critical friend, with focus on standards and improvement•Principal and management team work effectively with BoG to ensure effective performance against indicators in ESaGS•Culture of self-evaluation and self-improvement throughout the school, with focus on using performance and other data to identify areas for improvement•Teachers supported in their work to raise standards•High expectations set for every pupil•Parents and community welcomed into school

The role of ELBs

• Accountable for effective use of resources by schools they fund

• Expected to monitor performance of all schools in their area

• Providing support to ensure sustained focus on improvement

• Lead role in signing off and supporting action plans in cases where inspection finds provision to be less than satisfactory

• Can request inspections if they have concerns• Partnerships key – must work with CCMS and also

involve CnaG, NICIE and DE as appropriate

Expectations of ESA• Setting targets for improvements in educational

outcomes – but maintaining a focus on other characteristics

• Clear focus on high quality, responsive support for schools – what they need, when they need it

• Working with schools to ensure a focus on self-improvement, encouraging self-evaluation and providing access to data and resources to support that process

• Acting on the basis of inspection evidence to support schools where provision is unsatisfactory and to ensure that action is taken

• Working with schools, with ETI and with DE to ensure that the actions set out in Every School a Good School are delivered

Self Evaluati

on

School Developm

ent Planning

Learning &

Teaching

Establishing procedure

cycleCollect,

collate and analyse data

Coordinator’s roles and

resps

BoG role

Consulting with pupils & parentsOutcomes

focussed

Staff Devt and

Deployment

Prioritised 3 year plan

Whole school

assessment strategy

Track pupil progress

through use of data

Evaluation and Next

Steps

What sources of data do you have in the school at

present?

Workshop one

People’s views

Quantitative data

Direct observation

Sources of Rich Sources of Rich DataData

People’s Views:• Individual interviews

•Staff•Parents

• Group discussions• Working

Parties/Teams• Key Stage reviews• Full staff reviews• Pupil Forum• Q’nnaires/Surveys• Written responses

Quantitative Data:• Test results• Profiling responses to

tests• Benchmarking• Baselining• Pupil Tracking• Value Added

measures• Progress on prior

levels• Individual pupil

progress on meeting targets

• School progress re the Literacy/Numeracy targets

• Attendance• Exclusions/

suspensions• Destination records

Direct Observation:

HOW• Pupil Shadowing• Lesson Observation• Videoing lessons• Exchange classes• Observe in

pairs/threes• Team TeachingWHAT• Pupils’ work• Reports to parents• Profiling pupils’

response to challenge

• Teachers’ plans• Evaluations of plans• SDP/AP progress

report

What is the school’s current provision?

Workshop twoArea Evidence Next Steps

Establishing a procedure cycle

Collect, collate and analyse the data

Coordinator's roles and responsibilities

BoG role

Consulting with parents and pupils

Outcomes focused

Staff development and deployment

SDP

Whole school assessment strategy

Tracking pupil progress

Evaluation and next steps

Implications and next steps